Ecclesiastes 5:16

Ecc 5:16 And this also [is] a sore evil, [that] in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?

Ver. 16. And this also is a sore evil.] Malum dolorificum, so it will prove; a singular vexation, a sharp corrosive, when Balaam and his bribes, Laban and his bags, Nabal and his flocks, Achan and his wedge, Belshazzar and his bulls, Herod and his harlots, Dives and his dishes, &c., shall part asunder for ever, when they shall look from their death beds, and see that terrible spectacle, death, judgment, hell, and all to be passed through by their poor souls! Oh, what a dreadful shriek gives the guilty soul at death, to see itself launching into an ocean of scalding lead, and must swim naked in it for ever! Who, therefore, unless he had rather burn with Dives than reign with Lazarus, will henceforth reach out his hand to bribery, usury, robbery, deceit, sacrilege, or any such like wickedness or worldliness, which "drown men’s souls in perdition and destruction?" {1Ti 6:9} If rich men could stave off death, or stop its mouth with a bag of gold, it were somewhat like. But that cannot be, as Henry Beaufort, that rich and wretched cardinal found by experience; as the King of Persia told Constance the Emperor, who had showed him all the glory and bravery of Rome; Mira quidem haec, said he, sed ut video, sicut in Persia, sic Romoe heroines moriuntur, {a} - i.e., These be brave things, but yet I see that as in Persia, so at Rome also, the owners of these things must needs die. Agreeable whereunto was that speech of Nugas, the Scythian monarch, to whom, when Michael Paleologus, the emperor, sent certain rich robes for a present, he asked, Nunquid calamitates, morbos, mortem depellere possent? - whether they could drive away calamities, sickness, death? - for if they could not do so they were not much to be regarded, {b}

What profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?] i.e., For just nothing. See Hos 12:1 Jer 22:22. The Greeks expressed the same by hunting after and ‘husbanding the wind.’ {c} The apostle speaks of "beating the air," {1Co 9:26} as he doth that fights with his own shadow - that disquiets himself in vain. The four monarchies are called the "four winds of heaven." {Zec 6:3-4} And at the Pope’s enthronisation a wad of straw is set on fire before him, and one appointed to say, Sic transit gloria mundi, - The glory of this world is but a blaze or blast.

{a} Fulgent.

{b} Pachymer., Hist, lib. v.

{c} Aνεμους γεωργειν.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:16-17 Working simply to gain possessions is like working for the wind; it leads to being frustrated, discouraged, and angry.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

In affliction and grief of mind.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Even supposing that he loses not his wealth before death, then at least he must go stripped of it all (Psa 49:17).

laboured for the wind-- (Hos 12:1; Co1 9:26).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

16. what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?] The ever-recurring question (ch. Ecc_1:3, Ecc_2:22, Ecc_3:9) rises once again, “What profit?” In “labouring for the wind” we have a phrase almost identical with the “feeding on wind” or, as some render it, the “striving after the wind” which is the key-note of the whole book. As in Pro_11:29; Isa_26:18; Job_16:3 the “wind” is the emblem of emptiness and nothingness.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came,

so shall he go,.... This seems not to be an evil or vanity, distinct from the former; but the same repeated and confirmed, and expressed, if possible, in stronger terms, that a man is in all respects alike, when he goes out of the world, as when he came in. A man's birth is signified by "coming", that is, out of his mother's womb, and into the world; and which is a description of every man born into it, Joh 1:9; he is of the earth, earthly; comes forth like a flower, and springs up as grass; he comes not of himself, nor casually, but by means of his parents; and according to the determinate will of God, and to answer some end or other: and his death is signified by "going": a going the way of all flesh; a going out of the world; a going to the grave, the house of all living, a man's long home; it is like going from one house to another; for death is not an annihilation of man, but a remove of him from hence elsewhere; and a man's birth and death are in all points alike. This is to be understood of natural and civil things; of riches and honours, which men cannot carry with them; and with respect to them, they are as they were born, naked and stripped of them; and with respect to the body, the parts of it then are the same, though more grown; it is as naked as it was born; and a man is as much beholden to his friends for his grave as for his swaddling clothes; it becomes what it was at first, earth and dust; and as a man comes not into the world at his own will and pleasure, so neither does he go out of it at his will, but the Lord's. The Midrash interprets it thus,

"as a man comes into the world, with crying, weeping, and sighing, and without knowledge, so he goes out.''

Likewise this is only true of natural and unregenerate men as to moral things; as they are born in sin, they die in sin; with only this difference, an addition of more sin; as they come into the world without the image of God, without a righteousness, without holiness, and without the grace of God, so they go out of it without these things: but this is not true of saints and truly gracious persons; they come into the world with sin, but go out of it without it; being washed in the blood of Christ, justified by his righteousness, and all their sins expiated and pardoned through his sacrifice: they are born without a righteousness, but do not die without one; Christ has wrought out an everlasting righteousness for them; this is imputed to them; is received by faith; given them; they are found in it, living and dying; and this introduces them into heaven and happiness: they are born without holiness, but do not live and die without it; they are regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit of God, and at the moment of death made perfectly holy. This only therefore is true of men, as natural, and with respect to natural and civil things: the Targum interprets it,

"as he comes into this world void of merit, so he shall go into that;''

and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind? for riches, which are as unsatisfying as the wind; which are as shifting, and as swift to flee away, as that; and can no more be held, when it is the will of God they should go, and especially at death, than the wind is to be held in the fist of men; and which are as unprofitable as that in the hour of death. Particularly, what profit has a man of all his riches, which he has got by labour, when he neither makes use of them in life for his own good, nor the good of others; and when he comes to die, they leave him and stand him in no stead; and especially having been unconcerned about his immortal soul; and having been wholly taken up in the pursuit of such vain and transitory things? see Mat 16:26.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Sorrow. The person whose riches have been taken away, had made a bad use of them, (Calmet) living like a miser. It would be more rational to indulge in the pleasures which they afford, though this is also vain, chap. iii. 14.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This also, which I have last mentioned and shall now repeat. For the wind; for riches, which are empty and unsatisfying, uncertain and transitory, fleeing away swiftly and strongly, Pro 23:5, which no man can hold or stay in its course, all which are the properties of the wind. Compare Pro 11:29; Hos 12:1.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

16. Laboured for the wind — Clearly if he had not, but had been content to lead a quiet life, without the hazards of speculation, even then he would have been obliged to leave all behind at death. Now the case seems harder, coming to that after a restless and unprosperous life.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This also is a sore evil. The thought of ver. 15 is emphatically repeated. In all points as he came; i.e. naked, helpless. And what profit hath he that laboreth for the wind? The answer is emphatically "nothing." We have had similar questions in Ecc_1:3 Ecc_2:22 Ecc_3:9. To labor for the wind is to toil with no result, like the "feeding on wind, pursuing of vanity," which is the key-note of the book. The wind is the type of all that is empty, delusive, unsubstantial. in Pro_11:29 we have the phrase, "to inherit the wind." Job calls futile arguments "words of. (Job_16:3 Job_15:2) Thus the Greek proverb jAnemouv qjran ejn diktuov to try to catch the wind:" and the Latin, "Ventos pascere," and "Ventos colere "(see Erasmus, "Adag.," s.v. "Inanis opera"). Septuagint, Kaiv hJ perisseia aujtou h+ mocqei eijv anemon; "And what is his gain for which he labors for the wind?"

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The wind - For riches, which are empty and unsatisfying, uncertain and transitory, which no man can hold or stay in its course, all which are the properties of the wind.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

A transition is now made to rich men as such, and the registering formula which should go before Ecc 5:14 here follows: "And this also is a sore evil: altogether exactly as he came, thus shall he depart: and what gain hath he that laboureth in the wind?" Regarding זה; and regarding כּל־ע שׁ,

(Note: I n H. written as one word: כּלעמת. Parchon (Lex. under עמת) had this form before him. In his Lex. Kimchi bears evidence in favour of the correct writing as two words.)

The writing of these first two as one word [vid. note below] accords with Ibn-Giat's view, accidentally quoted by Kimchi, that the word is compounded of כ of comparison, and the frequently occurring לעמּת always retaining its ל, and ought properly to be pointed כּלע (cf. מלּ, Kg1 7:20). עמּה signifies combination, society, one thing along with or parallel to another; and thus לעמת bears no כ, since it is itself a word of comparison, כּל־עמּת "altogether parallel," "altogether the same." The question: what kind of advantage (vid., Ecc 1:3) is to him (has he) of this that ... , carries its answer in itself. Labouring for the wind or in the wind, his labour is רוּח (רעיון) רעוּת, and thus fruitless. And, moreover, how miserable an existence is this life of labour leading to nothing!

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

and sickness Heb. וְחָלְיוֹ, like וְחֹלִי, and the “vav” is superfluous, like the “vav” of (Ps. 104: 20): “beast (חֳיְתוֹ) of the forest.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.